14 Aug 2002
Moses Says Tight Economic Times May Be Undoing For Edison In DISD
DALLAS—Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Moses on Wednesday, Aug. 14, reported to board trustees that the administration is close to making a recommendation about what should be done about the future of Edison Schools in the district for the 2003-04 school year.
Citing an option in the contract with Edison and Texas law that gives a government entity the ability to opt out of a multi-year contract due to budget constraints, the superintendent said DISD is closely studying what impact cuts in funding from the state and local property tax base are having on the district.
"Like we've seen throughout the nation, the city of Dallas and other Texas school districts, we're in a period of tightening economic times that is forcing us to look at ways to save tax dollars and use them more efficiently," Moses said. "The Edison School project has been given an opportunity to operate in the district and they have had some successes. The bottom line question remains—are the citizens of Dallas getting the best value for their education dollar with Edison Schools—and that's the question we now have on the table."
The superintendent said Wednesday he has had several conversations with Edison Schools President Chris Whittle. "We are not ready to make a final recommendation to the board about the future of Edison," Moses said. "We are certainly in the final stages of making a decision and likely will have made it by the end of the week."
Moses also cited the fact that Edison's performance record does not appear to match or exceed that of the district's other schools. In 2000-01 Edison had two low performing schools (Henderson and Titche) and five acceptable schools, and in 2001-02, the number of low performing had increased to three (Blair, Henderson and Hernandez) and acceptable schools had dropped to four.
Regarding academic achievement, Edison Schools have exceeded the performance expectations on the TAAS writing tests. Students at Edison Medrano have met the achievement expectations of students attending comparable DISD schools. However, overall, Edison students have not met or exceeded the performance of students attending comparable DISD schools.
"While they certainly have had some successes, questions remain about the academic performance of Edison Schools here in Dallas," Moses said. "We have to ask ourselves the tough question about whether we can justify to our taxpaying community the investment required."
The superintendent said that it costs about $39 million a year to operate Edison's seven schools in the district. Due to a complex funding formula, the number seems to increase continually, Moses said. The district spends about 10 percent more than the district average to educate a child in an Edison school.
The seven schools in the district operated by Edison include W.A. Blair, Margaret B. Henderson, Onesimo Hernandez, Maple Lawn, Esperanza Medrano, John W. Runyon, and Edward Titche. Almost 7,000 of DISD's 164,000 students attend Edison Schools.
"We want to continue to work with the leadership of Edison Schools as we get to a decision about what we feel should be the future of their program in the Dallas Independent School District," Moses said. "Our fundamental issue remains the economy, funding from the state, and the fact that there has been much less growth in the assessed value of homes and businesses here in Dallas County."